Climate change has got the earth In hot water

Other highlights in the NOAA report concerned record air temperatures across the globe, glacial warming, permafrost heating and other findings. As I sit writing this, the smoke is preventing me from seeing down the road. Over 1,000 square miles have burned here in Washington and Oregon.

But it’s the oceans that have got us in such hot water.

Water determines our lives and our future. Water is the only reason life exists on this planet in the first place. And the effects of warming waters are devastating to what life exists on Earth today.

A huge deadly warm water blob, the biggest in history, now stretches from Mexico to Canada, threatening even more marine life. Warm ocean temperatures are killing coral reefs. Ocean productivity at the base of the food chain decreases as temperatures rise. Warm waters holds less oxygen, and that’s killing fish, crabs and other marine life (Tri-City Herald). Sub-tropical fish are appearing offshore of Alaska.

Right here in Washington State, the river temperatures are so high that fish are dying in droves. Huge sturgeons, 10-feet long, are floating belly-up in the Columbia River (Tri-City Herald). Over 500,000 salmon have died this summer here in eastern Washington alone, completely reversing the recent gains in salmon population that resulted from years of careful work.